Conquering Your Mindset

01/07/25 • 11 min

Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan

Sara Sheehan discusses the importance of conquering mindset to overcome fear and define success in today’s episode. She splits the conversation into three key parts, touching on How to Stay Driven and Motivated, Overcoming or Minimizing Fear, and Defining Success as a Leader. In each part, Sara examines why mindset is such an important component of success and how to master each step by asking important questions and paying attention to goals.

Sara shares the inspiration she drew from a continuing education course by James Garrett, called “Brain By Design” and points out that sometimes teaching can continue to reveal new insights as we revisit it over and over. How do we master dread? We confront it to get more comfortable with the thing we dread. How do we take risks? We start with the courage to put ourselves out there. Mindset determines the direction of our energy and action and Sara offers guidance on how to change and develop our mindset in new ways.

This quote from Carol Dweck sums up the episode nicely: “A growth mindset is the belief that all abilities are trainable. Nothing is fixed. That we can change anything from intelligence to creativity to athleticism through persistent and adaptive effort.” The words we need to keep in mind are mindset, consistency, commitment, courage, and success. Practice what we fear and consider success as something that grows and evolves in ways Sara highlights in this episode.

This episode is step 2 from my free ebook on my website: 7 Steps to Thrive in the New World

Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

Transcript:

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Welcome to Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today, I would like to discuss the very important topic of conquering your mindset and how to overcome fear and define success. I'd like to start with a quote that I love that really speaks to my heart by Carol Dweck. A growth mindset is the belief that all abilities are trainable. Nothing is fixed. That we can change anything from intelligence to creativity to athleticism through persistent and adaptive effort.

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:40] Today, I will split the conversation up in several parts, and I'll dive in first with, 'How to Stay Driven and Motivated'. During my career in business, I've worked with some of the largest consulting firms and Fortune 100 clients, mentoring and developing senior leaders and designing organizations and business strategies, managing change, optimizing talent and leadership development, and solving complex human performance problems. As you may imagine, I have often had to overcome the fear of standing on the edge of the unknown waters and define success for myself within the space. How did I do this? By being very consistent in the actions that I take on a weekly basis. Planning out my week, my calendar, and my time so that I have time to focus on marketing. I have time that's set aside to be creative, and I have time set aside to reach out to potential and new clients, as well as existing relationships to test out my programs in market research conversations. Because I became consistent and thoughtful in my activity, fear hasn't been an overwhelming factor for me in a long while. This is possible for you, too. Invest in setting aside time to do mindset work. This is absolutely critical for anyone who is a business owner, leader, or in a scenario where your role will bring you in contact with managing and mediating between different people, temperaments and challenges. It helps you show up better in every meeting and every conversation, and it serves as your special energizer. Once you're in a conversation and you see that it's going well and it's successful, it'll motivate you for the next thing on your calendar. It's a situation where it feeds off of itself.

Sara Sheehan: [00:02:38] Part two, 'Overcome or Minimize Fear'. Your mindset is critical. A strong mindset keeps you in your best energy. Additionally, planning your day around your mindset can be a very useful approach. Let's explore an example. When I plan my day, I look at scheduling difficult meetings during the time of day when I have the best energy. It helps me stay mindful about setting 5 to 7 priorities for each day, and working the list until it's done. Overcoming fear is really about mindset, consistency, and focus. Those three things make a huge difference. It's also important to step into and practice what you fear so that you can move from fear to growth to mastery.

Sara Sheehan: [00:03:27] 'How Brain Science Helps in Business'. Overcoming fear takes practice. According to a sig...

This episode is step 2 from my free ebook on my website: 7 Steps to Thrive in the New World

Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

Transcript:

Sara Sheehan: [00:03:27] 'How Brain Science Helps in Business'. Overcoming fear takes practice. According to a sig...

Previous Episode

Jeremy Fischbach - How Happy is Disrupting Corporate Mental Health

Sara Sheehan’s guest in this episode is Jeremy Fischbach, CEO of Happy, a mental health company providing frictionless, non-clinical support for people in demanding environments. Happy supports large organizations like hospitals and the Department of Defense and operates by eliminating barriers to accessing emotional support. Jeremy drew on his background in psychology and law, as well as his personal difficulties accessing mental health support, to develop Happy. He tells Sara exactly how his innovative approach prioritizes accessibility and impact.

Jeremy’s personal struggles and dissatisfaction with the time-consuming and inaccessible nature of mental health support led him to envision a system where emotional support was readily available and proactively offered. He focused on creating a frictionless system with a platform where users find emotional support without facing complicated processes. Sara explores how Happy’s model addresses a growing need among people who feel disconnected from support.

Sara and Jeremy discuss Happy’s high adoption rates and clinical-level effectiveness, the real-time emotional support offered, and how it enhances employee engagement. Despite struggles with disrupting traditional and digital mental health systems, Jeremy highlights the importance of continuing to challenge old models and assumptions. Happy’s success highlights the need for compassionate, accessible, and innovative mental health solutions that make user experience the priority.

About Jeremy Fischbach:

Jeremy Fischbach is the Founder of Happy, whose mission is to create a more supportive culture by expanding access to the essential ingredient of mental health and by teaching and inspiring people to better emotionally support each other. Prior to Happy, Jeremy was the CEO of Myne, which built interactive educational and sports analytics software that leveraged users’ psychographic data to improve performance. Jeremy has a psychology degree from Princeton and a J.D. from NYU.

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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

Jeremy Fischbach | Happy

Transcript

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Hi there, I'm Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I'm joined by Jeremy Fischbach, CEO of Happy, a frictionless mental health company that is completely disrupting how large organizations care for their employee's mental health. Many of the large organizations that are working with Happy have employees that are in harm's way or in very demanding professions like military organizations such as the Air Force or the Department of Defense, large hospitals with health care workers including nurses and doctors, just to name a few. By the way, their clients are reaping huge returns on investment. Jeremy is the founder and CEO of Happy, whose mission is to create a more supportive culture by expanding access to the essential ingredient of mental health, and by teaching and inspiring people to better emotionally support each other. Prior to Happy, Jeremy was a CEO of Myne, which built interactive educational and sports analytics software that leveraged users psychographic data to improve performance. Jeremy has a psychology degree from Princeton and a JD from NYU.

Jeremy Fischbach: [00:01:39] I'm honored to be here, Sara. Thank you for making time on a Saturday.

Sara Sheehan: [00:01:44] Absolutely. Jeremy, I find you to be a truly fascinating person. Can you tell me a little bit about your backstory and how it led you to where you are?

Jeremy Fischbach: [00:01:57] I'm not sure that I agree with your characterization, but I think I've taken the same type of circuitous path that a lot of people have to wherever they are in their lives today. I think for these purposes, my story begins with a deep curiosity about people which preceded going to college. I just happened to always be on the outside of any population I was a part of looking in, and I think it gave me a chance to better understand who I was, who other people were. When I got to Princeton, I majored in psychology and neuroscience and was actually going to be a psychiatrist. I was pre-med and then had a near-death experience right before graduation that sent me on a whole different course. I was a composer in New York City for many years. Then for reaso...

Next Episode

Aspirational Goals

Sara Sheehan talks about how success in business is not accidental but the result of clarity, focus, and execution. Central to this journey is the idea of setting aspirational goals. Sara explores aspirational goals through the lens of cutting-edge neuroscience and practical business strategy to uncover how our brains respond to ambitious goals and how those targets stimulate the brain’s reward system. She details the balance of how challenging and feasible the goal should be to properly motivate us.

David Rock PhD, a thought leader in neuroscience and author of “Your Brain at Work” has uncovered exactly how our brains respond to aspirational goals. Sara uses his research and her own experience to lay out the journey of crafting aspirational goals, examining both why they’re important strategically and scientifically, and how to ensure they are designed effectively. Planning makes a goal transformative, otherwise, as she states, “An aspirational goal without a roadmap is just a wish”.

In this episode, Sara walks us through the necessary steps of the journey with a smartly designed map. She explains the key points as being Aspirational Goals Beyond the Ordinary, The Strategic Advantages of Aspirational Goals, The Neuroscience of Goal Setting, Creating Your Aspirational Goals, Building the Action Plan, The Role of Coaching, and The Ripple Effect. Using her insight, aspirational goals become the concrete building blocks of a successful business.

Resources discussed in this episode:

“Your Brain at Work” by David Rock
Dr. David Rock

Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

Transcript:

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:03] Hi there, I'm Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I would like to talk about a very timely and important topic, setting aspirational goals. Success in business is rarely accidental. For CEOs and entrepreneurs, the pathway to sustained achievement is paved with clarity, focus, and relentless execution. Central to this journey is the art and science of setting aspirational goals. Ambitious targets that not only push boundaries, but also ignite innovation and purpose within an organization. When combined with a structured action plan, aspirational goals become transformative forces that align teams, foster resilience, and deliver measurable outcomes. Why are aspirational goals so vital for leaders, and how can you harness their potential? Let's explore this through the lens of cutting edge neuroscience and practical business strategy.

Sara Sheehan: [00:01:16] 'Aspirational Goals, Beyond the Ordinary'. Aspirational goals go beyond traditional benchmarks. These goals are bold, future oriented, and often seem out of reach. Yet they serve as the North Star that motivates leaders and teams to think bigger and perform better. Aspirational goals inspire not just what is achievable, but what is imaginable. David Rock, PhD at Thought Leader in Neuroscience and the author of 'Your Brain at Work', emphasizes the brain's response to ambitious goals. His research on coaching with the brain and mind highlights that setting high reaching targets stimulates the brain's reward system, creating a sense of excitement and possibility. However, he cautions that for goals to be effective, they must strike a delicate balance between challenge and feasibility. Too easy, they fail to inspire. Too impossible, and they risk demotivating.

Sara Sheehan: [00:02:27] 'The Strategic Advantages of Aspirational Goals'. There are four key points that I'd like to make here. First, they fuel vision and innovation. Aspirational goals force leaders to challenge the status quo. They compel organizations to think differently, leverage new technologies, and explore unconventional strategies. Steve Jobs, as an example, famously set a goal for Apple to "put a dent in the universe". A vision that transpired transformative products like the iPhone and the iPad. Second, drives alignment and focus. Aspirational goals provide a unifying purpose. They serve as a rallying cry for teams, ensuring that resources, energy, and creativity are channeled toward a common objective. This alignment fosters collaboration, reduces the risk of fragmentation in strategy execution. Third, enhances resilience. The purpose of ambitious targets builds mental toughness and adaptability. Teams that commit to aspirational goals often develop a fail forward mentality, viewing setbacks as lea...